by on December 22, 2011 6 Comments

Introducing ExpertEngine

Journalistics has launched a new service called ExpertEngine. ExpertEngine will help journalists (eventually) quickly (and anonymously) search for, find and contact experts for the stories they are working on. Before I give you the full scoop (and the sign-up info), here’s a quick story about why we – a blog about journalism and PR – decided to create ExpertEngine.

One of the best and worst things about working with start ups, particularly if you’re entrepreneurial like myself, is you inevitably find yourself wanting to do your own thing again. As some of you know, I majored in public relations and journalism at Utica College of Syracuse University. It’s one of the few colleges that combines instruction for journalism and PR – so since college, I’ve learned about both sides of the fence. I’ve always thought of starting a business related to PR/journalism – but not a service business like I did with my agency, but rather a product business.

Somewhere in the midst of Web 2.0, but before the social media craze, I started thinking to myself, “There has to be an idea I can take to market that PR people will love?” PR is hard work… how can I make it easier? What problem that hasn’t been solved yet? Surely there is an outdated or overpriced service that could be updated for the 2000s? I mean, what independent PR professional can afford $5K a year (at the time) for a media database? I ultimately settled on creating a FREE media database. You know, Vocus/Cision meets Wikipedia? If you ever read Wikinomics, you know there are plenty of examples of peer production and mass collaboration successes out there – I was sure it would work if I built it. I did start to build it, but then… [Read more...]

Filed Under: announcements, media relations, online journalism Tagged With: , , ,
by on December 27, 2010 4 Comments

Top 10 Journalistics Posts of 2010

The last Journalistics post of 2009 was the “Top 9 Posts of 2009.” It seems fitting that the last post of 2010 should be the Top 10 Posts of 2010, you know, keeping with tradition and all.

Before I get to the list, I’d like to thank all of you who read Journalistics on a regular basis. It’s been your ongoing support that has continued to motivate me to keep on blogging. Journalistics is here for you, the readers. If you have any suggestions for topics you’d like us to cover, or ways we can improve the blog, please let me know.

Without further delay, here’s the list of Top 10 blog posts from 2010: [Read more...]

Filed Under: announcements, journalism, public relations Tagged With: , ,
by on July 20, 2010 3 Comments

Journalistics Internship Experiment

I wrote “Do You Need an Internship to Get a Job?” back in May and hid a subtle offer in the last paragraph: if you need work experience, I’m happy to have you as a guest blogger over the summer. This low exertion internship seemed like the perfect option for students without internships lined up for the summer – or those looking to add even more experience to their resume. When you consider most of the people reading this blog could help them get their first job, it seemed like a fair offer.

I didn’t expect to get 20 responses within 24 hours (and a hat tip to the students at Penn State – several participated in this program). Over the past two months, I’ve been working with a group of students and recent graduates on their posts.

I’ll be featuring their posts over the course of the next few weeks (starting today) and am very impressed by some of the content they created. I hope you’ll join me on commenting on their posts and congratulating them on work well done.

Each post includes the author’s bio with some background on the progress they are making in their studies, or what they are looking for in their first job. Feel free to connect and help them grow as professionals. Thanks for your help.

(Image Credit: Canadian Family)

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With:
by on February 8, 2010 15 Comments

Find a PR Job This Month

Unfortunately, there are a lot of talented PR professionals out of work right now. It’s a sign of the times. When revenues are down, organizations have to layoff talented people. It’s one of the hardest things a manager has to do, but things are much harder for the professional that finds himself/herself out of work.

I get at least a couple of resumes per week right now, and I don’t know of any open positions in the Atlanta market. I really want to help these people in their job search, but there’s only so much I can do beyond passing them along to other contacts in my network.

The good news is hiring seems to be on an upswing for the first time in the past year. It looks like client budgets are opening up, which means organizations and agencies can start staffing up again. This could be an excellent time to dust off the resume and start looking for that next opportunity.

For this reason, I couldn’t be more excited about the Help A PR Out day idea cooked up by Arik Hanson and Valerie Simon, two of my favorite Twitter-savvy PR friends. On February 19th, PR professionals from across the country will converge on Twitter for the specific purpose of helping out-of-work PR professionals find their next opportunity. [Read more...]

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With: ,
by on November 26, 2009 3 Comments

Happy Blogsgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks. I can’t think of a better day to thank all of you for your continued support of Journalistics. Since launching the blog this past spring, more than 50,000 of you have shown up to read our posts. Now that might not sound like a lot to some of you, but to us, that’s simply amazing. We’re thankful for every single one of our readers. Your personal messages, post suggestions and regular input around the topics we discuss here make the work worthwhile. So, thank you.

There are also a few hundred or so of you that have helped us out in one way or the other over the past year, whether with the blog or our product development plans behind the scenes. We couldn’t possibly thank you all in this post – but you know who you are, and here’s one more “thank you” for you.

To all of you that have tried out ExpertTweet or signed up for our looming Journalistics beta - thanks. We will officially start with the direct invites on December 1st for our first wave of the beta (which is really an alpha, but that’s beside the point).

Of course, we can’t dole out thanks without thanking the 9,000+ Followers of Journalistics on Twitter. You continue to be the #1 source of traffic to our blog, and the true evangelists for our developing brand. Thank you for all the retweets, replies and new relationships.

There are a few people we’d like to give special thanks to, while we’re in the spirit of Thanksgiving, namely:

If we left you off the list, please don’t take it personally. We’re thankful to you too. We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break. We look forward to getting back to things next week, and hope you’ll swing back by (we’ve got some exciting stuff coming up).

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Image Credit: Thank you * by rustman)

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With: ,
by on October 24, 2009 Leave a Comment

PR Camp New York City: Mark Your Calendar

PR Camp New York City has put together a solid lineup as far as “unconferences” go. Following the success of PR Camp Atlanta, Bernaise Source Media has set a new PR Camp date for the PR capital of the world, New York City. On Friday, November 20, 2009, public relations professionals will gather in New York to explore key issues facing the public relations industry, with a full day of interactive discussions on social media.

The format of the event is very relaxed and interactive, unlike traditional conferences. There are no panels or PowerPoint presentations, but rather moderators (a.k.a. “camp counselors”) will use scenarios based on case studies to guide participant discussions. There is already an impressive lineup of moderators and companies for the event, including:

  • Stephanie Agresta – EVP, Global Director of Digital Strategy and Social Media, Porter Novelli
  • Chris Andrew – Vice-President-Group Director Media, Digitas
  • Erin Byrne – Chief Digital Strategist, Burson-Marsteller
  • David Berkovitz – Senior Director of Emerging Media & Innovation, 360i
  • Joe Ciarallo – Editor, PRNewser.com and Manager, PR Initiatives, mediabistro
  • Stacy Green – Manager, Internal Comms. & Public Relations, New York Times
  • Janine Gianfredi, Marketing Manager, Google
  • Howard Greenstein – President and Social Media Strategist, Harbrooke Group
  • Andrea Harrison – Strategy Director, Razorfish
  • Peter Himler – Founding Principal, Flatiron Communications
  • Jim Issokson – VP, Reputation Management, MasterCard Worldwide
  • Morgan Johnston – Manager, Corporate Communications, JetBlue
  • Dina Kaplan – Co-Founder, blip.tv
  • Joe Kingsbury – Social Media Practice Lead, North America, Text 100
  • Jonathan Kopp – Global Director, Ketchum Digital
  • Peter Lucht – Executive Director, External Affairs, Verizon
  • Alex Norman – Executive Vice President, Schematic
  • Corvida Raven – Generation Yer and Blogger/Media Strategist, shegeeks.net
  • Steve Rubel – SVP, Director of Insights, Edelman Digital
  • Rachelle Spero – Executive Vice President, Digital Media, Cohn & Wolfe
  • Lloyd P. Trufelman, President & CEO, Trylon SMR, New York
  • Paull Young – Account Director, Converseon

PR Camp New York is recommended for PR, marketing and communications professionals at all levels, from business, non-profits, government agencies, associations and educational institutions. And in case you’re still on the fence about whether or not to attend, I hear there will be marshmallows and a virtual campfire to complete the “camp” motif. Might I suggest some hot chocolate as well? Chances are it will be chilly in New York in November.

For more information on the event click here. The Atlanta event sold out well in advance, so I would expect tickets for the New York event to go fast as well. There is an early-bird discount on tickets through the 30th of this month. I hope to see many of you at the event. Let me know if you’ll be attending and want to meet up around the event.

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With: ,